Kai Ludwig in Germany writes:

On its last day on FM in Saxonia the German service of RFI gave some explanations about this circumstance and its current situation. Summary:

The withdrawal had been initiated by the BBC. Earlier this year, when the renewal of the licence for another eight years came on the agenda, the BBC told that they are no longer interested, not only because of poor ratings but also due to their general strategy that includes a withdrawal from Europe and from Germany in particular, the latter being obvious from the circumstance that the BBC no longer broadcasts in German already since nine years ago.

RFI does not continue in Saxonia alone for cost reasons. The BBC paid more than 70 percent of the costs, and RFI is neither willing nor able to take these expenses.

First RFI indeed found a solution to keep its German service on FM in Saxonia in spite of this situation: A commercial German station [of course they referred to Radioropa] was interested in purchasing the licence and still rebroadcast RFI German as well as one hour of RFI French and two hours of BBC World Service. The negotiations took a couple of weeks, they were just about to sign the contract when the German station [Radioropa] closed down altogether. After this development the BBC and RFI decided to finally return the licence.

Our announcement mentions that listeners in Saxonia can still tune in via Astra satellite and online, but: RFI's new management, introduced in July, has announced that they "definitely" plan to close six language services, including German, as we learned last Friday to our great dismay. The argument are again poor ratings, although the FM outlet in Berlin gains much more listeners than in Saxonia. Beyond that it's a cost saving measure, RFI has a deficit, that's true. In future RFI will concentrate on Africa much more and expand it's capacities there, and for that Europe will be simply sacrificed. It's a heavy blow for us, but we have not let go all hopes yet and started, amongst other action, a letter-writing campaign.

Audio of this studio talk is here, sounding almost exactly like BBC-RFI on FM in Saxonia did: http://www.rfi.fr/actude/articles/106/article_671.asp

I have not received word yet about what happened at midnight, so the chronicle will have to be completed later. And meanwhile the matter became a political issue because the Saxonian media authority will not reallocate the frequencies, stating that they are obligued to digitize broadcasting. The Liberal Democrats in Saxonia already criticized this position, pointing out that the radio market certainly deserves more variety since private radio in Saxonia is meanwhile concentrated in two big groups [Regiocast and RTL]. The plan of the media authority is to exterminate the frequencies (Frequenzvernichtung is indeed an almost established term for discussing media politics) by using them for digital pilot projects like DRM+. In Dresden this would be especially scandalous because the non-commercial Coloradio has to make do with two poor 100 and 50 watts frequencies while BBC-RFI was from Coloradio's 50 watts site (Dresden-Gompitz) on air with a solid 1 kW. (TFK: Freital 99.3, Dresden-Gompitz 98.4 and 91.1, respectively.)


David Murphy in Dresden writes:

Hi Kim, As expected, shortly after midnight local time on 31 October, the BBC-RFI FM signal was cut here in Dresden. It was as if someone just pulled the plug: it went from the middle of a piece from RFI French to static with no official goodbye.

RFI in German did carry on 31 October an interview with their head of German. She stated that the initiative to close the stations came from the BBC at the start of 2008, citing low listenership and a change in strategy. I've attached a translated transcript of the interview. RFI German is also worried that

Its whole existence is threatened now, given the plans to close the service. You could hear the emotion in her voice. The podcast is linked to at the start page of rfi.fr -> deutsch (marked "Zur Einstellung der UKW-Frequenzen in Sachsen")

I also contacted BBC World Service listener feedback programme Over to You. They got a statement from BBC WS to say the stations were being cut due to low listenership, mentioning a weekly reach in Dresden of 0.5% in 2007. I've also attached a transcript of that short segment. The original is avaiable online at bbcworldservice.com for the next week. Interestingly, in my original phonecall to Over to You, I asked if the proposed joint BBC/DW DRM station would be an alternative eventually, and that was left out of the broadcast. They offered internet and satellite as alternatives.

Best regards from Dresden, where I'm scratching my head to find an alternative way of hearing English-language radio: the BBC has given up on shortwave, FM and I can't pick them up on Worldspace any more... -David.


RFI transcript and translation (by David Murphy):

Carmen Lünsmann, Announcer: You've been hearing the announcement [regarding the end of broadcasting in Saxony] over the last few weeks and this weekend it will unfortunately finally happen. We'd like to speak with our Chief Editor Ulike Sachweh about the reasons for the pull out. How did this decision come about, Ulrike?

U.S.: As you can tell from the name, BBC-RFI Saxony was four joint frequencies run by the British BBC World Service and Radio France International. The initiative for the pull out came from the BBC. At the start of the year when the time came to renew the licenses for the frequencies for a further eight years, the BBC informed RFI that London was no longer interested [in continuing to broadcast in Saxony]. They named two main reasons; firstly the low listenership and secondly the general BBC strategy which involves a withdrawal from Europe and and from Germany in particular. The BBC did after all stop broadcasting in German nine years ago.

Announcer: But why didn't RFI just take over the frequencies itself?

U.S.: It was a question of costs. 70% of the costs for these four frequencies were covered by the BBC, which was consistent with the number of broadcast hours they had. RFI did not want to and was not able to cover these extra costs.

Announcer: But there was another solution which would at least have kept at least the German-language programmes on air on these frequencies, wasn't there?

U.S.: Yes, we had found a German privately-owned radio station which wanted to buy these four frequencies, or more correctly that wanted to buy the broadcast licenses and which would have continued to broadcast our programmes, plus an hour in French and two hours of the BBC. The negotiations went on for a few weeks and just before they were to be finalized, this privately-owned radio station stopped all its broadcast activities. Thereupon BBC and RFI decided to return the licenses irrevocably [to the licensing authority].

Announcer: In our announcement it says that listeners can continue to hear us via the Astra satellite and via the internet. But even that's no longer so sure, since it is reported that the new RFI management which has been in office since July plans to close six language services, the German service being one of them.

U.S.: Yes, we first heard about this last Friday, with great dismay. The arguments for closure are, again, low listenership, though the FM frequency in Berlin has disproportionately more listeners compared to the frequencies in Saxony. Cost-saving measures also come into play, RFI is in the red, that is true. And, as is the case with the BBC: a new strategy. RFI wants to in the future concentrate much more on Africa and to increase its capacity there. And to do that, sacrifices are to be made in Europe. It's a hard blow for us, but we haven't given up completely, Carmen, that our broadcast can be saved. Among other measures, we've started a signature campaign. Listeners who would like to support us can do by e-mail or letter. To finish up, I'd like to thank the listeners in Saxony who've been listening for the last seven years. I'd also like to thank the Institut Francais in Leipzig, with whom we've worked very well all this time, amongst other things with a joint stand at the Leipzig Book Fair. And I'd especially like to thank our colleagues responsible for the weekly "Sachsenmagazin", Elisabeth Schröter and Annegret Farber and the many journalists in Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and in many European countries from the Baltic to Romania and on to Spain who worked on that programme. Merci beaucoup.

Announcer: And I'd like to thank you, Ulike Sachweh for this interview, you're the Chief Editor of RFI's German programmes. And we hope of course that the last word on this subject has not yet been said, or to put it better, not yet been broadcast.


BBC "Over to You" transcript (by David Murphy):

Well David we got in touch with the World Service and I'm afraid that I can confirm that the World Service English-language programming will no longer be available on FM in Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz or Pirna. In their statement, the World Service says...

Reader: The BBC knows it has a loyal audience on these stations, but it increasingly a small audience and the BBC World Service will remain available online and via satellite. Research in 2007 showed BBC World Service's weekly reach was just 0.5% in Dresden and 2% in Leipzig.

So, if you can still hear me, the alternatives for you are listening online or via the Hotbird satellite service and many local cable operators, or so I'm assured.